Saturday, January 14, 2006

Still More Catalogs

Moving right along...

Select Seeds offers yummy photographs of yummy flowers, and I love them for that. This is good bathtub reading, girls. I'm not a geranium fan, but I've got to have 'Appleblossom Rosebud.' Nasturtiums are weeds in my garden, but I'll take 'Carribean Cocktail.' (no fair evoking memories of warm nights and rum punch at a time like this) Here is gas plant, which I am told can be ignited on a warm evening, and five varieties of heliotrope, including a white one for that moonlight garden I keep meaning to plant. Schizopetalon 'Milky Way' has tiny little flowers that look like paper cutouts of snowflakes, and they only grow to a foot tall, but they smell like sweet almond. Yes, yes!

And here are pages and pages of flowering vines, more sweet peas than I can count, an indecent number of poppies, and--at last--my mignonette. "Grow with violas!" the cataog says, with no explanation as to why. OK, I'll try it.

Also, a big airy flowery tobacco 'Mutabilis.' Has anyone tried it? Grows to six feet and self sows. That's all I need to know.Finally--and this is important--get yourselves some 'Black Beauty' lilies. These were hybridized by Leslie Woodriff, father of 'Star Gazer.' They were not available in any quantity until recently. If you can grow lilies, you won't believe these. They can reach five feet tall and produce an astonishing number of flowers. Seriously, you won't believe it. You'll be hearing more from me about this lily later in the year when my next book comes out...

OK, that's it. One catalog and I'm exhausted. There's a dozen more here that I havent' touched.